Interlude 3
Plumeria
Plumeria had no idea where she was.
She’d needed some space, some fresh air. So she’d left the Fifth Law’s hideout through Glorious Garments and went for a walk.
She’d been wandering aimlessly—glamoured, of course—around the city for a few hours now.
She no longer needs you.
The words had been playing in her head over and over again since she’d left. Adelaide had told the rest of the Law her secret, and could truly be Adelaide, now. Plum was thrilled for her, truly. This was what she’d always wanted, a place to be herself, and Plum could never begrudge Adelaide her happiness and joy.
But… where does that leave me? Plum thought.
The voice in the back of her head was harder and harder to ignore. Without her secret, Adelaide would no longer need Plum to support her, or to be that light in the dark for her to return to.
Adelaide no longer needed her, and that meant it was only a matter of time before she left her, too.
Plum’s thoughts drifted to the pit in her stomach where she’d buried her pain on their trip to Algaran. She imagined herself peering over the edge, through the gaps in the vines she’d grown over it, and down into the depths. The shadows roiled, and spoke to her.
She no longer needs you.
Plum huffed and shook her head. She lifted her head and looked around. She’d ended up in a seedier part of town, it seemed. The buildings here were dilapidated, some of the windows boarded over, and the people all seemed… listless.
She could sympathize.
Fortunately, Plum blended in. She’d glamoured herself as a nondescript woman in a worker’s dress. She walked aimlessly, but confidently, and barring a few leers from some of the men, the denizens paid her little mind.
There was a sudden racket from around the corner. Curious—and desperate for a distraction—Plum peeked her head around to investigate.
“Come back when ye’ve the coin!” shouted a woman’s voice. She was yelling at a man on the ground, crumpled in a heap, seemingly just thrown out the door by a much larger, burlier man. The large man stood imposingly in the doorway, and the man on the ground scrambled to his knees.
“Please, madam,” he begged. “Just let me see the girls!”
“Not a chance!” came the woman’s voice again. The woman was older than Plum, perhaps in her forties. She stood behind the large man, and she wore a long, brightly pink dress with her bust practically spilling out. “Ye’ve harassed m’ girls enough, Kel!”
Kel blubbered a bit more, but the larger man kicked him when he got to close. Kel groaned and staggered to his feet, and then stumbled down the alleyway, still begging to no one.
A brothel, Plum thought. Sure enough, now that Kel was on his way, several windows opened back up in the side of the building, and an array of women began flaunting their assets out the windows. The woman who was yelling must have been the madame.
Plum hesitated. She knew she had some coin on her, and she was having certain urges.
But then she thought of Adelaide. She remembered the pain in her face when she’d caught Plum with Millie. Adelaide trusted her, and she expected her to be better than this. Plum wanted to be better. But…
She no longer needs you.
Plum stared for a moment longer, then dug in her pockets. She counted her coins, nodded, and strode confidently towards the brothel, ready to forget her problems through the company of at least three beautiful women.
“Miss Delora.”
Plum groaned, and rolled over away from the voice. Her head throbbed like it was clenched in a vice. How much had she drank last night? Was it even morning? Where was-
Her thoughts slammed to a halt as she was doused in icy water.
Sputtering, she shot upright, gasping and blinking the water out of her eyes. She shook her head and launched herself upwards from the unfamiliar, now soaked, bed, her hand already reaching to her hip for her wand.
And… it was missing. Her wand holster was not at her waist. In fact, nothing was at her waist. Plum yelped to find that she was completely nude, and she scrambled to pull a soaking wet blanket around her body.
Panic edged into her mind, and she looked up at her assailant. She prepared to reach out to her gloam magic, but then paused when she saw who it was.
Adamas Onera stood in front of her. His face was expressionless, but his violet eyes looked down the tip of his nose at her. He was presently re-sheathing his own wand, a knobbled rod of pale wood.
“Good morning, Miss Delora,” Adamas said simply. He held out his other hand. “I believe this is yours?”
Plum glanced down. Adamas held her wand, proffered out to her to take. It was conspicuously missing one of the inset red gemstones.
Plum snatched it away from him and tucked it safely into its sheath. Adamas smirked, but said nothing.
“How long?” Plum asked.
“According to Miss Vermillion, you have been missing for 16 hours.”
Plum groaned inwardly. She quickly checked her pockets and found them empty.
‘Tis good I left most of our money with Adelaide, she thought. I clearly can not be trusted with anything.
Only then did it occur to Plum to think through the night before. She remembered walking into the brothel, picking out some girls, ordering a few drinks… the night quickly became fuzzy, but she had enough memory to know that it had been a series of terrible decisions.
She’d ended up spending the night at the brothel, of course. She’d been too drunk to go anywhere else, and the last of her coin had been spent on the room.
“How did you find me?” Plum asked, rubbing her head.
“Let us just say that I have heard whispers on the wind.”
“Vague. Spooky. And supremely unhelpful.”
“I live to please,” Adamas said with a short, mocking bow.
Plum snorted. “I’d have found my way back. Eventually.”
“I’ve no doubt of that. You have shown yourself to be more than capable.”
“Then why are you here?”
Adamas smiled. The creepy bastard actually smiled.
“Take a moment to dress, if you please. Then let us take a walk.” He stepped into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind him.
Plum’s clothes were in a heap on the other side of the room. She quickly dressed, trying her best to ignore her wet hair, and then followed Adamas out of the room.
The two were soon walking the streets, headed back through the dense alleyways that made up Algaran’s slums. They walked in silence for a while: Plum’s was sullen, and Adamas’s contemplative—or perhaps judgemental.
“Laszlo thinks highly of you,” Adamas said eventually.
Plum snorted. “And I am clearly undeserving of that esteem. Is that what you wish to tell me?”
“Hardly,” he answered. “We all have our vices.” He turned his head and met Plum’s eyes. His violet gaze seemed to pierce straight through her.
“Though I do wonder,” Adamas continued. “What the young Miss Vermillion would think.”
Plum looked away, ashamed. She pointedly watched a stray cat lapping at a puddle. The sight made her think of Meeks, who was probably back at the Law’s base with Adelaide—and thinking of Adelaide made her gut twist.
“She thinks even more highly of you, you know,” Adamas said. “She holds you in something higher than esteem. Worship, perhaps? Love?”
Plum’s breath hitched. She clenched her fist tight enough that she felt her nails dig into her palm and cut through the skin.
Adamas tsked. “You feel that you have no place here,” he said. It should have been a question.
“I understand,” Adamas continued as though she’d responded. “We often find ourselves… aimless. ‘Tis often easy to throw ourselves at meaningless distractions, or misguided passions… or a woman’s gaze.” Out of the corner of her eyes, Plum noticed him glance at her pointedly.
She no longer needs you.
She clenched her fist even tighter. A bead of blood dripped from her hand and splattered onto the ground. Adamas barely glanced at it.
“I’d advise you to consider what it is that you truly need, Miss Delora. Our lives are nothing without meaning, without purpose.” He stopped walking, and turned to face her. She found herself unwittingly meeting his gaze.
“We are gloam magicians. Our abilities may not always possess the greatest strength, but we have always held more power than they would have us believe. The choice of what to do with that power is yours, and yours alone.”
Plum looked away again. “What have you chosen to do?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I have chosen,” Adams replied calmly. “To fix this wretched world.”
Plum looked at him sharply. “‘Tis quite the burden on your shoulders.”
Adamas sniffed. “Perhaps.” He turned and continued walking, not bothering to check if Plum followed. “And perhaps the world deserves it not. The nobility are monsters, the peasantry are dullards, and the Magisterium are power-hungry zealots. I’ve naught but proof that most people are useless at best and evil at worst.”
“Then why?” Plum asked, hurrying to catch up.
“Because it does not have to be this way,” Adamas answered simply. “A better world, a better people, is possible.”
“You truly believe that?”
“I have to,” Adamas replied. “If I do not, then everything has been for naught…” he trailed off. In that moment, Plum felt a strange kinship with the man. He needed to be correct about this. If he wasn’t…
She no longer needs you.
Plum flinched as if struck. The voice kept growing louder and stronger, harder and harder to ignore. Each time she heard the words, the Pit in her seethed and threatened to overflow. She could almost physically feel the vertigo as she peered over the edge. That roiling mass of darkness felt… familiar. Like a childhood friend whose face you’ve forgotten, but whose name will never leave you. It invited her into the pit, beckoning wordlessly. All it would take was one single, miniscule step…
“Miss Delora?”
Plum jumped. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she gasped as she returned to her body. She tasted bile in the back of her throat.
Adamas had said something else, but she hadn’t heard.
“Is aught wrong, Miss Delora?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.
“I- no, sorry,” Plum answered. “What were you saying?”
Adamas shook his head. “It matters little. Come, we must return to the Law. There is much work to be done.”
He strode off, and Plum hesitated for a moment. The mass in the Pit loomed at the back of her mind. It felt somehow… grander than it had before. As though it had grown.
Or, perhaps, it had simply gotten closer.
Disconcerted, Plum shook her head hard enough to make her vision blacken around the edges for a few seconds. Adamas was right—they had work to do. With a sharp breath, Plum stepped forward, following Adamas back to the Law.
She’d deal with the Pit later.
Cambria's Corner 
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